Polish/Verbs

There are two classes of verbs in Polish - perfective verbs to talk about actions that are completed or will be completed, and imperfective verbs for actions that are taking place in some moment (no indication of completion). Very often they form pairs.

Perfective verbs don't have a present tense - if something is already done you must use the past tense and if it's not - the future tense. This "future perfective" tense is identical in form to the present tense. Let's take the imperfective and perfective verbs for "to drink":

Kot pije mleko - "The cat drinks milk" or "The cat is drinking milk now", pije is an imperfective verb

To form other tenses besides the present and future perfective we need two more verb forms - the infinitive and the participle.

The infinitive usually ends with "-ć". The participle depends on the subject's number and gender:

Perfectiveness

Meaning

3rd person singular

Infinitive

Participle

Singular

Plural

Feminine

All masculine genders

Neuter

Person-masculine

Other genders

Imperfective

To drink

pije

pić

piła

pił

piło

pili

piły

Perfective

wypije

wypić

wypiła

wypił

wypiło

wypili

wypiły

Imperfective

To eat

je

jeść

jadła

jadł

jadło

jedli

jadły

Perfective

zje

zjeść

zjadła

zjadł

zjadło

zjedli

zjadły

Imperfective

To see

widzi

widzieć

widziała

widział

widziało

widzieli

widziały

Perfective

zobaczy

zobaczyć

zobaczyła

zobaczył

zobaczyło

zobaczyli

zobaczyły

Imperfective

To read

czyta

czytać

czytała

czytał

czytało

czytali

czytały

Perfective

przeczyta

przeczytać

przeczytała

przeczytał

przeczytało

przeczytali

przeczytały

Imperfective

To write

pisze

pisać

pisała

pisał

pisało

pisali

pisały

Perfective

napisze

napisać

napisała

napisał

napisało

napisali

napisały

Imperfective

To have

ma

mieć

miała

miał

miało

mieli

miały

Imperfective

To think

myśli

myśleć

myślała

myślał

myślało

myśleli

myślały

Perfective

pomyśli

pomyśleć

pomyślała

pomyślał

pomyślało

pomyśleli

pomyślały

Imperfective

To drive

jedzie

jechać

jechała

jechał

jechało

jechali

jechały

Perfective

pojedzie

pojechać

pojechała

pojechał

pojechało

pojechali

pojechały

Imperfective

To do / to make

robi

robić

robiła

robił

robiło

robili

robiły

Perfective

zrobi

zrobić

zrobiła

zrobił

zrobiło

robili

zrobiły

Imperfective

To earn

zarabia

zarabiać

zarabiała

zarabiał

zarabiało

zarabiali

zarabiały

Perfective

zarobi

zarobić

zarobiła

zarobił

zarobiło

zarobili

zarobiły

Very often a perfective verb is formed from the imperfective by some prefix. Another class of pairs is verbs which are already derived from some other verb by prefixing. In Polish double prefixing is very rare, so an alternative form of base verb is used with the same prefix.

Participles usually have regular endings showing the number and tense of the verb's subject: "ła", "ł", "ło", "li", "ły". In some cases "a" also changes to "e" in the plural person-masculine, where a softened consonant is used. This is one of the typical features of the Polish language, and it can also be found in other places, for example the locative of the noun "miasto" (city) is "mieście".

The future imperfective is formed by the future form of the verb "to be" (equivalent to "will" in English) and either the third person form of the participle or simply the infinitive. The participial form is more common, however, if you're unsure of the correct ending, just use the infinitive.

Singular

Plural

First person

będę

będziemy

Second person

będziesz

będziecie

Third person

będzie

będą

Basia będzie czytać książkę - Basia will be reading a book.

Basia będzie czytała książkę - also correct

Basia przeczyta książkę - Basia will read the (whole) book

Dziecko będzie jadło ciastko - "The child will be eating a cake", or "The child will eat part of cake" (it might eat the whole cake, but the sentence doesn't specify this)

Dziecko będzie jeść ciastko - also correct

Dziecko zje ciastko - the child will eat the (whole) cake

Zrobisz obiad? - will you make dinner? (question about effect or result, that is dinner. Contains implied expectation of completion of action)

Będziesz robić obiad? - will you make dinner? (question about action. No indication if dinner is expected to be completed)

You can also use the verb "to be" on its own:

Ciastko będzie smaczne - The cake will be tasty (the cake probably hasn't been made yet, but when it is made, it will be tasty)

Past tenses - past perfective and past imperfective - were originally formed in a similar way, but later the auxiliary verb merged with the participle. The Polish past perfective doesn't have anything to do with the English perfect tense - it's used for completed actions and is more similar to the English simple past.

The participle alone is the correct third person past tense:

Basia zrobiła kawę - Basia made coffee (past perfective tense, important thing is that coffee is available now)

Basia robiła kawę - Basia was making coffee (past imperfective tense, answer for "what was Basia doing when you last saw her" or "what is all that mess in the kitchen". No indication if the action was completed.)

In first and second person you have to add:

First person singular - "m"

Second person singular - "ś"

First person plural - "śmy"

Second person plural - "ście"

Note that for the masculine singular ("-ł") you have to add an extra "-e-":

zrobiłem kawę - I made coffee (masculine I)

zrobiłam kawę - I made coffee (feminine I)

zrobiłeś kawę - you made coffee (singular masculine you)

zrobiłaś kawę - you made coffee (singular feminine you)

zrobiłyśmy kawę - we made coffee (... and we are all girls)

zrobiliśmy kawę - we made coffee (... and there is at least one man among us)

There is also a tense to mark something that happened before a given event in the past, like the English "pluperfect", but it's very archaic now and rarely used in modern Polish.